Five conclusions: Huddersfield Town’s promotion hopes in serious danger of slipping away

A third 1-0 defeat in four league games at Wigan leaves the Terriers’ play-off ambitions out of their own hands

1. Huddersfield Town let the game get away from them

Don’t bottle it again from here, lads. That was the essential message of our midweek piece. Wigan’s long-standing status as a bogey team for Town, including a dismal performance in a 1-1 draw in December, only made this game more of a touchstone for where this side are and what kind of trajectory they’re on.

Well, that answers that, then.

We could see from the way their recent games against Luton and Stockport went that Wigan have been much improved since Gary Caldwell returned to the club a few weeks ago. As such, we weren’t expecting an easy game for the Terriers.

Still, after the hosts had the run of the first 20 minutes, Town ended up having the better chances of the first half. They simply needed that extra bit of luck on two passages of play that saw them hit the post, first through Ryan Hardie’s shot and then later through Bali Mumba’s deflected effort. Both were followed by goalline clearances to deny Alfie May and then Marcus Harness.

Just come out for the second half and keep doing more of the same, then? Surely.

But no. The crucial moment in the game, bizarrely, was a yellow card for Lasse Sorensen just before half-time. Caldwell immediately called over to Joseph Hungbo and told him to get ready to come on for the second half and target the Dane.

From there, Town ended up running scared of a side that started the day in the relegation zone. All of Town’s efforts, including those of the head coach, became about trying to contain Wigan. In the process, they failed to offer anything meaningful of their own.

It would be nice to have a team that could do two things at once, wouldn’t it? But the story of this season has been that of a side that can either score plenty of goals but can’t defend to save their lives; or an outfit that gets intimidated by the opposition, fails to take risks, and ends up getting narrowly beaten because of it.

The latter has been increasingly the case under Liam Manning, and is exactly what happened here. Even after going a goal down, Town offered little threat on the Wigan goal, aside from a Harness long shot late on.

It was pitiful to watch, and the boos from the away end at Town’s lack of quality were well-earned by the end.

It’s becoming a concerning pattern now. Town had just one 1-0 defeat in 27 league games under Lee Grant (away to Stockport), and failed to score on just three occasions. They have now done it three times in their past four league games under Manning, two of them to sides battling relegation.

That’s not good enough for a side supposedly in a promotion race. It’s also terrible to watch.

2. Town’s set piece decline has been shocking